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MACBETH 

A Warning Against Superstition 



MACBETH 



A Warning Against Superstition 



by 



ESTHER GIDEON NOBLE 




BOSTON 

The Poet Lore Company 

1905 



» - 



Copyright 1905 by ESTHER GIDEON NOBLE 
All Rights Reserved 



UBKAHY of COW 
I wo Copies Keceived 

MAY 2 1S05 

Oopyngni 






t 






Printed at 

THE GORHAM PRESS 

Boston, U. S. A. 



MACBETH, A WARNING AGAINST 
SUPERSTITION 

The great message conveyed by the trag- 
edy Macbeth is a warning against supersti- 
tion, or a perversion of the imagination. 
Shakespeare was so far in advance of his 
time that the greatest scientific truths were 
well known to him many years before they 
were hit upon by their so-called discoverers. 
That he believed in witches or supernatural 
agents of any kind is impossible. Shakespeare 
was essentially a dramatist. He was also an 
actor and a shrewd, practical business man- 
ager, who knew well how to catch the pen- 
nies of the "groundlings" and the pounds of 
the "judicious" one. His plays were writ- 
ten for presentation. Macbeth seems to have 
been written for immediate presentation. 
Shakespeare's policy was "to show the very 
age and body of the time his form and pres- 
sure," and "to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up 
to nature." The Weird Sisters were treated 



Macbeth 

as positive objects, and introduced at the be- 
ginning of the play for dramatic effect, at a 
time when even the King and high dignitaries 
of state believed in them, when witches (so- 
called) were being legally burned at the stake, 
and no woman or man could be sure of im- 
munity from arrest on a charge of witch- 
craft. 

To admit the material existence of the 
Weird Sisters and that Macbeth was incited 
to murder by them would rob the play of its 
purpose, with which in view T Shakespeare 
made Macbeth distinctly a man of thought, 
calculation and caution. It is the abuse, the 
misdirection of this great power for thought 
which makes the tragedy. The first words 
Macbeth speaks establish the fact that the 
witches are but an echo of his own thoughts. 
That they have said more than he does in this 
particular place is not significant. He gives 
the key to the situation by suggestion: u So 
foul and fair a day I have not seen." Mac- 
beth has just won a great victory in battle; 

6 



A Warning Against Superstition 

therefore, to him, the day is "fair." This 
victory has given life to a latent ambition. It 
was the fashion of the time for any one who 
entertained a hope to seek to have it con- 
firmed by supernatural means. The time and 
place best adapted to such a purpose were a 
lonely spot and a tempest, for it was, accord- 
ing to popular belief, u in thunder, lightning 
and in rain" that supernatural agents most 
easily manifested. All this and the object of 
the visit of Macbeth and Banquo to the 
heath is told in the one word "foul." 

During the course of the play it is shown 
that Macheth's mind is steeped in supersti- 
tion. There is not a single instance in which 
the witches do more than "harp" his u fear 
aright," or give utterance to a belief or idea 
which he does not entertain. 

ACT III. SCENE IV. 

"It will have blood, they say ; blood will have 
blood; 



Macbeth 

Stones have been known to move and trees 

to speak; (*) 
Augurs and understood relations have 
By magot-pies and choughs and rooks 

brought forth 
The secret'st man of blood." — 

shows how he is imbued with old and then 
popular superstitions. 

ACT IV. SCENE I. 

"I conjure (t) you by that which you pro- 

(•). Note the superstition in regard to trees. Stones may 
44 move" but trees only 4< speak." 

(+). I accent the word c6njure on the first syllable and inter- 
pret and use it in the sense 44 to practice magical arts," advisedly. 
I quote the Clarendon Press Editors as authority for the state- 
ment that : 44 C6njure seems to be used by Shakespeare always 
with the accent on the first syllable, except in Romeo and Juliet, 
II.i.26, and Othello, I.iii.105. In both these passages he uses Con- 
jure.' In all other cases he uses c6njure whether he means (1) 
4 adjure ' (2) 4 conspire ' or (3) 4 use magic arts.' " 

Troilus and Cressida : Act IV. Scene III. 

Tro. Was Cressid here ? 

Ulyss. I cannot c6njure, Trojan. 

Tro. She was not, sure. 

Ulyss. Most sure she was. (She must have been here be- 
cause you saw her and I cannot conjure.) 

Tro. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness. 

Ulyss. Nor mine, my lord. Cressid was here but now. 

(Macbeth not only believed he could c6njure, but came to 
have the taste of madness.) 

T. & C Act II. Sc. III. 
Thersites. 'Sfoot, I'll learn to c6njure and raise devils, but 
I'll see some issue of my spiteful execrations. 

8 



A Warning Against Superstition 

fess, etc.," is extremely significant. Up to this 
time Macbeth has heard none of the incan- 
tations of the witches to which the audience 
has been treated, but he knows them. He be- 
lieves in witchcraft and considers himself a 
conjurer. 

ACT II. SCENE II. 

Macbeth is shown to have accepted that 
religion which makes it possible for a man to 
commit the most heinous crimes and receive 
absolution on his death bed or on his way to 
execution. With his hands still dripping with 
the blood of his own cousin, the innocent and 
inoffensive Duncan, Macbeth was surprised 
and shocked because "Amen" stuck in his 
throat when another innocent victim cried 
"God bless us!" "But wherefore could not 
I pronounce 'Amen?' I had most need of 
blessing, and 'Amen' stuck in my throat." 
Such superstition as this is little short of in- 
sanity. But Shakespeare has already shown 

9 



Macbeth 

that Macbeth is not insane at this time. In 
the last scene of the preceding Act, viz. Act 
I, Sc. VII, Macbeth coolly, quietly and 
thoughtfully calculates the reasons for and 
against detection and punishment here. He 
has no fear of the life to come because he can 
make his arrangements for the next world at 
his own convenience. If he die a natural death 
he can ask a "blessing" and say "Amen" at the 
last moment. If killed in battle or suddenly 
by accident, he still has his Purgatory. Had 
this power of analysis, this capacity for mental 
appreciation, been cultivated and kept clean 
of the rank growth of superstition which fin- 
ally chokes and kills it, Macbeth's mind would 
have retained its balance. 

Reverting to Act I. Sc. I, there is nothing 
in this scene to justify the belief that Mac- 
beth and Banquo really see, or fully believe 
they see anything. Both are seeking to learn 
the future by supernatural means. Their 
minds are working together. Both are suc- 
cessful generals under a weak king, and the 

10 



A Warning Against Superstition 

crown is not entailed, though Macbeth stands 
nearer to the line of natural succession than 
Banquo. Neither fears the succession of the 
king's sons, because they have never distin- 
guished themselves in any way, and, Duncan 
out of the way 3 the people will be more than 
likely to bestow the crown upon a great mili- 
tary hero. Banquo is more interested in the 
matter of royal succession than Macbeth be- 
cause he has a son and Macbeth is childless; 
hence Banquo imagines he sees the witches 
first. Banquo and Macbeth know that one or 
the other will be likely to succeed to the title 
and estate of the vanquished traitor, Cawdor; 
Macbeth being the more probable recipient 
because he is cousin to the king ; so Macbeth 
imagines this prophecy. It is a phase of in- 
tellectual dishonesty peculiar to the ignorant 
superstitious which induces a feigned surprise 
and astonishment at the perfectly natural and 
expected consequence of a natural and known 
cause. 

Banquo reveals the unreality of the witches 

II 



Macbeth 

when he asks: "Were such things here as we 
do speak about ?" And Macbeth admits that 
"nothing is but what is not." There has been 
no "suggestion" save that which exists in his 
own mind, whose "thought" is "murther." 

The witches do not foretell the death of 
Banquo to either because it had not occurred 
to Macbeth that this murder would ever be- 
come necessary to his own safety, and Banquo 
is not aware that his life is in danger. Had 
Macbeth fully believed in the existence of the 
witches and their prophecies, he would have 
believed it would be useless to attempt to mur- 
der Fleance. 

ACT I. SCENE VI. 

Banquo is shown to be a man of thought, 
refinement and imagination: 

"This guest of summer, 
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve 
By his lov'd mansionry that the heaven's 

breath 
Smells wooingly here; no jutty, frieze, 

12 



A Warning Against Superstition 

Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant 

cradle : 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have ob- 

serv'd 
The air is delicate." 

But he also shows his deliberate treachery to 
Duncan in failing to warn him of Macbeth's 
design which, in Act II. Sc. I, it is plainly 
shown he knows. In this scene Banquo sets 
aside Macbeth's insincere remark in regard to 
the unfitness of his castle for the reception 
of the king, with the peremptory two words 
"All's well," and follows it with a terse state- 
ment of the one thing of interest to both : "I 
dreamt last night of the three Weird Sisters : 
To you they have showed some truth." Mac- 
beth's first impulse, as usual, is to lie: "I think 
not of them," but he knows it is useless to try 
to deceive Banquo on that point, and on sec- 
ond thought decides to sound him; to learn if 
possible exactly what Banquo's attitude to- 

13 



Macbeth 

ward him will be in the event of the fulfill- 
ment of his wicked plans. Up to this time 
the understanding between them has been 
tacit. Macbeth now warily admits his hope 
by the adroit use of the royal "we," and Ban- 
quo, having learned just as much as he wishes, 
cunningly evades committing himself in 
words. It is at this point that Macbeth first 
realizes that he cannot entirely trust Banquo, 
but that the latter will oppose no obstacle to 
the murder of Duncan. Banquo knows he 
cannot be king while Macbeth covets that 
honor, but, if Duncan is murdered by Mac- 
beth, the latter will be completely in Banquo's 
power. Macbeth is aware of this; hence his 
attempt to bribe Banquo with promises of 
future honors. The two hypocrites take leave 
of each other with conventional phrases on 
their lips and a perfect mutual understanding 
in their hearts. 

Macbeth makes all plain in regard to the 
dagger by what he says, he is made to admit 
that it is "a dagger of the mind, a false crea- 

14 



A Warning Against Superstition 

tion proceeding from the heat-oppressed 
brain" to prove that he is still sane, and be- 
cause it would be inartistic and undramatic to 
introduce a visible dagger. It would weaken 
the effect already produced by the use of the 
witches to attempt to repeat it by the employ- 
ment of any less exciting medium. For the 
same reason, and to further demonstrate that 
the supernatural agencies are the result of 
excited and perverted imagination, no one but 
Macbeth hears the voice cry "Sleep no more," 
etc. 

Act II, Scene III is entirely consistent with 
the idea that the play is an exposition of the 
pernicious teachings of the time. The Gun- 
powder Plot was the cause celebre of the day 
and gave much publicity to the doctrine of 
Equivocation. "The primrose way" is an ob- 
vious reference to the Jesuitical doctrine set 
forth by Father Pinter that: "It was reason- 
able that under the law of grace in the New 
Testament, God should relieve us from that 
troublesome and arduous obligation which ex- 

15 



Macbeth 

isted under the law of bondage, to exercise an 
act of perfect contrition, in order to be justi- 
fied; and that the place of this should be sup- 
plied by the sacraments instituted in aid of an 
easier exercise." 

One of the doctrines advanced by Luis Mo- 
lina, the Spanish Jesuit, was that: u God 
foreknowing what all persons would do under 
any and all circumstances, sends to perdition 
such as He foresees would remain obdurate, 
whatever exertions might be made to save 
them." 

Even a drunken Porter appreciates the hu- 
mor of the situation. Father Molina sends 
some of all professions to perdition, knowing 
it to be inevitable in spite of u whatever ex- 
ertions might be made to save them," and 
Father Pinter makes the way to the everlast- 
ing bonfire easy. 

The u rough night" on which the murder of 
Duncan is committed is not unnatural, but 
is exaggerated by those who are accustomed 
to associate with supernatural agencies the 

16 



A Warning Against Superstition 

simple manifestations of nature. This is one 
of the commonest traits of the ignorant, the 
half educated and the superstitious mind. It 
is the origin of religion. 

Superstitions in regard to birds, animals 
and insects were also very popular in Eng- 
land and Scotland, their commonest instincts 
being misconstrued and attributed to unnat- 
ural causes. The "Old Man" is introduced 
to show how these superstitions are handed 
down, like the national traditions and local 
dialect, from one generation to another; Ross 
representing the younger generation, which 
not only receives and cherishes, but endeavors 
to add to and embellish the traditions and su- 
perstitions of its fathers. 

ACT III. SCENE I. 

Banquo's hypocrisy is further shown. He 
believes Macbeth guilty of the murder of 
Duncan and is plotting the undoing of Mac- 
beth and the furtherance of his own ambition, 
yet treats him with the same respect that Mac- 

17 



Macbeth 

beth has lavished upon his intended victim. 
We hear so much about the "noble and incor- 
ruptible" Banquo that I have searched con- 
scientiously for evidence of his virtue, but am 
unable to point to a word in the tragedy which 
proves him to have been better than Macbeth. 
Macbeth speaks of Banquo's "royalty of na- 
ture." He cannot mean that Banquo is noble 
and generous because he knows him to be a 
traitor. It is because of Banquo's wisdom, 
courage and cunning that Macbeth's fears 
"stick deep" and he determines to personally 
assist the two hired assassins. This view is 
confirmed by the fact that it is the third mur- 
derer who indentifies Banquo and who knows 
the habits of all who enter the palace. He 
does not pursue Fleance for fear of detection, 
but takes it for granted the two hired assas- 
sins will do so, as they have been instructed 
that Fleance must share his father's fate. On 
the evening of Banquo's murder Macbeth has 
taken precaution to announce publicly that he 
wishes to be alone and undisturbed till supper 

18 



A Warning Against Superstition 

time, so that no one may look for him and find 
him absent from the palace. In his conver- 
sation with Lady Macbeth, Act III, Sc. II, he 
says he will take chances on both this world 
and the next ere he will continue to eat and 
sleep in fear, — "better be with the dead than 
on the torture of the mind to lie in restless 
ecstacy." He refers to the possibility of be- 
ing killed by Banquo in the attack upon him in 
which he intends to play the chief part. He 
knows Banquo's prowess so well that he fears 
to entrust his taking-off to ordinary assassins, 
and even fears for his own personal safety, 
but takes the chance rather than live in con- 
stant fear of exposure and defeated ambition. 
In the banquet scene the First Murderer 
boasts that he cut Banquo's throat, but fails 
to say who gave him the "twenty trenched 
gashes." When Macbeth sees the Ghost his 
first speech is, "Thou canst not say / did it," 
meaning "it cannot be proven, because I was 
disguised, and it is known to no one but my- 
self." He has even refused to let Lady Mac- 

l 9 



Macbeth 

beth into this secret. It is not the gashed 
throat, but the " twenty mortal murthers," and 
Banquo's "gory locks" which push Macbeth 
from his stool. "Take any shape but that and 
my firm nerves shall never tremble." And 
here we have the first sympton of insanity in 
Macbeth — a credited hallucination. Unre- 
mitting fear of exposure and continued loss 
of sleep have had their natural result upon a 
mind weakened and warped by superstition. 

Macbeth personally stabs Macduff's boy. 
Lady Macduff's first words when the murder- 
ers enter her presence: "What are these 
faces?" refer to their masks or disguises. The 
First Murderer reveals his indentity when he 
speaks of Macduff as a traitor. It has already 
been shown in Act III, Sc. VI, in the con- 
versation between Lennox and another Lord, 
that the people do not look upon Macduff as a 
traitor, and it certainly would not be the thing 
of paramount interest to a hired assassin. The 
term "shag-hair'd villain," applied to the 
First Murderer by the Son of Macduff, furth- 

20 



A Warning Against Superstition 

er reveals the fact of a disguise, shag-hair 
being a kind of material used at that time for 
wigs. (*) There could be but one reason for 
the repeated reference to a disguise in this 
short but important scene. Macbeth's iden- 
tity is further established by the epithet 
u young fry of treachery." No one but Mac- 
beth would look upon the Son of Macduff in 
this light. 

When Macbeth endeavors to conjure the 
witches for the last time Macduff has refused 
to come at his bidding, thus declaring rebel- 
lion. Macbeth determines to exterminate the 
Macduff family, especially the Boy, who will 
soon be old enough to avenge any wrong done 
his father. Macbeth is desperate. As fast as he 
rids himself of one enemy another arises. He 
seeks to conjure supernatural aid, determined 
to know the "worst" or secure a sign of ab- 
solute safety. Prophecies of seeming impos- 



(*). R. G. White: Shag-hair seems to have meant something 
more than merely dishevelled hair. ' For covering they have 
either hair or shag-hair' — Pro integumento habent vel pilos vel 
villos.— Gate of the Latin Tongue Unlocked, 1656, p. 46. 

21 



Macbeth 

sibilities were common in Scotland, the people 
who made them being clever imposters who 
preyed upon the credulous. About the time 
Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, the wife of Cap- 
tain James Stewart, a Scottish Earl, consulted 
a so-called witch, who was evidently an adept 
in the science of semieotics, or the language of 
pathological signs. She pandered to the am- 
bitious lady by predicting that she u would be- 
come the greatest woman in Scotland." As a 
matter of fact, a latent disease with which the 
lady was affected developed, and she died, ev- 
idently of dropsy, "being all swelled out in an 
extraordinary manner." (*) 

The same woman predicted that the lady's 
husband, the said Captain James, Earl of Ar- 
ran, should have the "highest head in Scot- 
land." The prophecy was apparently ful- 
filled, the so-called witch being well aware 
that Captain James intended to have extir- 
pated the whole family of Lord Torthoral 



(*). C. K. Sharpe : "A Historical Account of the Belief in 
Witchcraft in Scotland." 

22 



A Warning Against Superstition 

(called Douglass) who was, however, a man 
most likely and well able to defend himself 
and his family; which he did, killing James, 
whose head was, of course, carried high on the 
point of a spear, as was the fashion of the 
time. No one seemed to have been more 
familiar with these prophecies and their true 
value than Shakespeare, who exposed them so 
plainly that all who ran might read, using 
Macbeth as his medium. 

The most impossible thing suggested by 
the diseased imagination of Macbeth is that 
his native forest shall be removed from one 
place to another. Most of all he fears Mac- 
duff; hence he conjures the First Apparition, 
or Macduff's head, which "knows" his 
"thought" and "harps" his "fear aright." 
Next he fears Macduff's son, whom he has 
decided to murder because of his bravery and 
brilliancy; hence the Second Apparition, a 
bloody child. There is no other reason why 
Shakespeare should introduce this Boy and 
paint his character so strongly. There are 

23 



Macbeth 

other "pretty chicks" in the Macduff family 
and Macbeth wishes to be assured that "none 
of woman born" shall ever harm him. After 
partially deluding himself into believing he 
has received this prophecy he exclaims: 
"Then live Macduff; what need I fear of 
thee?" but instantly retracts it because he 
knows it is not true, just as he knows he is not 
telling the truth when he says, Act II, Sc. Ill, 
"He does," and immediately amends it with: 
"He did appoint so"; and when he says, Act 
V, Sc. Ill, 

"The mind I sway by and the heart I bear 
Shall never sag w 7 ith doubt nor shake with 
fear," 

and instantly falls into an agony of feat 
at the sight of one pale-faced servant. 

Macbeth wishes to believe that it will be as 
impossible for Malcolm to return to Scotland 
as for Birnam Wood to move against his 
castle. He therefore imagines the Third Ap- 
parition and the prophecy. Still he is not sat- 
isfied. Fleance is alive and may leave issue to 

24 



A Warning Against Superstition 

inherit the crown for which he has sacrificed 
so much. He tortures himself with this 
thought until he imagines the Show of Kings, 
reaching the climax of insane hallucination in 
the "blood-bolter'd" spirit of Banquo, in 
which he still believes. 

It would defeat the purpose of the play to 
leave the audience in doubt as to the exact 
state of Macbeth's mind at this juncture, and 
Lennox is brought upon the scene for the pur- 
pose of testifying to the unreality of the 
witches. 

Enter Lennox (from the direction in which 
the witches are supposed to vanish.) 
Lennox: What's your grace's will? 
Macbeth : Saw you the weird sisters ? 
Lennox: No, my lord. 
Macbeth : Came they not by you ? 
Lennox: No, indeed, my lord. 

It is thus finally demonstrated that all the 
supernatural agencies are but the materializa- 
tion of thought. Macbeth partially realizes 
this himself and determines to seek "no more 

25 



Macbeth 

sights." That he has become a nervous wreck 
is also definitely shown in Act V, Sc. Ill, 
when, for the first time during the entire 
course of the play, he loses his native polite- 
ness and abuses his servant. It is an accepted 
fact that a man's politeness and suavity, when 
so strongly ingrained as in the nature of Mac- 
beth, are the last traits to fall away from him 
while reason remains. Macbeth's frantic, ex- 
cited state of mind is further shown in the 
same scene in his indecision about the armor. 
His stubborn preference for superstition and 
disrespect for science, as well as the spirit of 
the times, is shown in his remark to the doc- 
tor: "Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of 
it." In 1605, or about the time that Shakes- 
peare was writing the tragedy Macbeth, Pat- 
rick Lawrie was committed to the flames in 
Scotland for curing a disease which was sup- 
posed to be incurable. He was said to have 
secured the means from the devil. (*) Such 



(*). C. K. Sharpe: "A Historical Account of the Belief in 
Witchcraft in Scotland." 

26 



A Warning Against Superstition 

instances were common in Shakespeare's day, 
when the laying-on-of-hands by a king or 
priest, and the hanging of a blessed coin about 
the patient's neck, was the kind of "physic" 
which was administered to the majority. The 
English doctor is introduced, Act IV, Sc. Ill, 
to testify to this milder form of superstition, 
which, under the guise of doing good, stood 
in the way of science and deliberately retarded 
the progress of the people. 

All Macbeth's remarks to the Scotch Doc- 
tor are in the nature of sarcasm: "Cure her 
of that." That is: "You pretend to know 
so much, why don't you cure your patient?" 
It has been contended that Macbeth's refer- 
ence to "a rooted sorrow" is evidence that he 
was aware that Lady Macbeth's sufferings 
were due to remorse. Macbeth would hardlv 
have confessed to any one that Lady Mac- 
beth had cause for remorse. He endeavors to 
mislead the Doctor by an intimation that 
Lady Macbeth is weighed down by some per- 
sonal, mental distress, of which she might 

27 



Macbeth 

easily be relieved if the Doctor's drugs were 
as potent as he claimed. 

MacbethV indifference to the death of 
Lady Macbeth is another indication of insan- 
ity. It is not unusual for insane people to ex- 
perience a complete revulsion of feeling to- 
ward those whom they love best. 

Of those who claim that the last two so- 
called prophecies were literally fulfilled, it can 
only be said that they are even crazier and 
more superstitious than Macbeth himself. 
Malcolm's use of the boughs of the trees of 
Birnam Wood was a simple and not un- 
precedented piece of military strategy. Mac- 
duff was "born of woman," just as every man 
who has ever come into this world has been. 
It is superstition, perverted imagination, 
which defeats Macbeth at last, not the fact 
that Macduff was prematurely born. Had it 
not been that Macbeth had made up his mind 
to lose, he might have slain Macduff as easily 
as he did Young Siward. 

It cannot be that Shakespeare offered the 

28 



A Warning Against Superstition 

tragedy Macbeth as a warning against am- 
bition, for ambition to excel by means of 
slaughter and blood-shed is extravagantly ex- 
tolled and liberally rewarded in Act I, Scenes 
II and IV. The only mystery in the play is 
that a man who is a butcher by profession, a 
legalized, wholesale slaughterer of his fel- 
low-beings, who is described in the first act of 
the play as a man who, 

u Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished 
steel, 
Which smok'd with bloody execution, 
Like valour's minion carv'd out his passage 
Till he f ac'd the slave ; 
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell 

to him, 
Till he unseem'd him from the nave to the 

chaps, 
And fix'd his head upon our battlements," 
and who is made to say in the last act : 

"Whiles I see lives, the gashes do better 
upon them," should make such a fuss over the 
murder of six or seven victims more or less. 

29 



Macbeth 

But there seems to be no limit to the vagaries 
of the human imagination. Lady Macbeth 
appears to have shared this idea when she 
said, Act V, Sc. I : 

"Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier and afeerd?" 
(To commDt one more murder.) 

The character of Lady Macbeth is much 
more difficult to understand than that of Mac- 
beth. Her conduct can only be explained by 
the fact that she represents her sex during an 
age when it was the custom for a woman, of 
whatever station in life, to sink her individual- 
ity in that of her husband or, before marriage, 
in that of her father; to an age when man 
was lord and master and woman's mission in 
life was to serve him; to subordinate and 
sacrifice herself and her children to him and 
his aims and ambitions; to support and fol- 
low him, even in crime and villainy. This 
view is strengthened by Lady Macbeth's ref- 
erence to her father, Act II, Sc. II, and the 
fact that in all she does there is no evidence 
whatever of personal ambition. Certainly 

30 



A Warning Against Superstition 

she did not suggest the murder of Duncan to 
Macbeth. This is plainly shown, Act I, Sc. 
VII, in the two speeches : 

u Was the hope drunk, 
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept 

since ? 
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale 
At what it did so freely?" 

This might be construed to mean "at what it 
did so freely at my suggestion," but, 

"What beast was't then 
That made you break this enterprise to me?" 

proves conclusively that Macbeth had in- 
formed her of his wish and design ; that the 
thought of murder originated with him. That 
Lady Macbeth, in spite of her false education, 
is a woman and not a fiend, as some would 
have us believe, and that she leans upon her 
husband much more than he does upon her, 
is manifested in her inability to bear the bur- 
den of dread and fear of exposure alone. 
When she becomes convinced at the banquet 

31 



Macbeth 

that Macbeth is unable to control his fancies, 
Lady Macbeth's spirit breaks and she never 
regains her courage. That she has idealized 
and over-estimated him is evidenced when she 
pronounces him u too full of the milk of hu- 
man kindness." 

I am unable to point to a single word in the 
play which proves that either Macbeth or 
Lady Macbeth ever experience remorse or 
repentance. They suffer nothing but fear of 
discovery. In describing Lady Macbeth, a 
popular critic says: u The power of religion 
alone could have controlled such a mind." 
The critic quoted has evidently overlooked 
the fact that Macbeth was a religious man, in 
the common acceptation of the term ; or pos- 
sibly she entertains the belief that what is bad 
for a man is good for a woman. It has never 
been found that anything but education, in 
the broadest sense of the term, serves to im- 
prove the mind of either man or woman. 

Of the theory that Macbeth and Lady 
Macbeth had discussed the murder of Dun- 

32 



A Warning Against Superstition 

can previous to the opening of the play it 
can only be said that such a plan would be in- 
artistic and undramatic — two things of which 
the author of Macbeth has never been guilty. 
Several of the important conferences in the 
play are duplicates, but none of them was du- 
plicated before the opening of the play. Had 
there been a previous discussion it would be 
definitely referred to in the play, which must 
contain the whole story. 

There is no doubt whatever that Macbeth 
broke his enterprise to Lady Macbeth in the 
letters which he wrote her. Act I, Sc. V, 
Lady Macbeth has read part of her letter be- 
fore she comes on the scene. "They met me" 
refers, of course, to the Weird Sisters whom 
Macbeth must have named before writing 
this sentence. "They," to be intelligible, must 
have its antecedent, at least. Macbeth has 
plenty of Scotch caution and calculates all 
chances to the best of his ability, but he is a 
successful general with many trusty messengers 
at his command, and he has "thought good 

33 

LrfC. 






Macbeth 

to deliver" his entire enterprise to Lady Mac- 
beth in this letter, or in this and other let- 
ters. She says: 

"Thy letters have transported me beyond 
This ignorant present, and I feel now 
The future in the instant." 

In the sleep-walking scene, Act V, Sc. I, the 
waiting gentlewoman says : 



u 



I have seen her rise from her bed, 
throw her night-gown upon her, un- 
lock her closet, take forth paper, fold 
it, write upon't, read it, afterwards 
seal it, and again return to bed." 



Lady Macbeth's mind reverts in sleep to the 
letter in which Macbeth has broken his enter- 
prise to her. 

The chief personages in the tragedy, Mac- 
beth and Lady Macbeth were the victims of 
heredity, false education and environment, 

34 



A Warning Against Superstition 

but, are we, with all our vaunted progress, in 
all respects wiser and better? We have re- 
placed the sword with the gatling-gun and 
the dagger with the stuffed ballot-box. We 
no longer burn witches, but, we have our 
Dowie, et al. 



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